Tiramisu Trifle

My manager doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, which I thought would make it challenging to celebrate her birthday with a dessert. But when she mentioned Tiramisu, a dessert that I love but have never made, I leapt at the chance to try a new recipe.

Classic Tiramisu from Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
6 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups marscapone cheese
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 (12 ounce) packages ladyfingers -I ended up using 5 (4 ounce) packages and ended up having a package left over
1/3 cup coffee flavored liqueur - I used a full cup of Kahlua which was a tad bit too strong - I would recommend 3/4 cup
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting
1 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate I ended up using the chocolate I had on hand (Hershey's Kisses) and a citrus zester


DIRECTIONS
Combine egg yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler, over boiling water. (I used a glass mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water). Reduce heat to low, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whip yolks until thick and lemon colored.



Add marscapone to whipped yolks. Beat until combined. In a separate bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks (try not to overbeat them like I did!). Gently fold into yolk mixture and set aside.



Split the lady fingers in half, and line the bottom and sides of a large glass bowl. Brush with coffee liqueur. Spoon half of the cream filling over the lady fingers. Repeat ladyfingers, coffee liqueur and filling layers. (I did this several times, as I was filling a trifle glass):



Garnish with cocoa and chocolate curls (I sprinkled cocoa powder over each layer of the cream mixture as well). Refrigerate several hours or overnight.



To make the chocolate curls, use a vegetable peeler and run it down the edge of the chocolate bar. (As mentioned above, I used a citrus zester and Hershey's kisses to create a light layer of chocolate "snow" - it looked very pretty!)



I got tons of compliments on the Tiramisu, including a thumbs up from my manager, with tons of cracks on how much Kahlua was used. To be honest, it did ended up tasting slightly more boozy than I was going for but not bad enough that it detracted from the rest of the cake.